It was great to hear the perspective of first speaker (I didn't catch his name) someone actively working with music practically and algorithmically. The amount of technical information specifically relating to music, not technology, that went over my head was a stark reminder that to work algorithmically with music meaningfully one must have a clear knowledge of classical music conventions, and not just a lateral mindset creatively and a proficiency for technology.
The Tenney piece looked brilliant laid out in MIDI notes, though when played was not terribly compelling. Though after explanation of its relevance and some elaboration on the mechanics of its construction the piece took on greater meaning.
Important notes: It was refreshing - as always - to hear from those working in the complex and abstracted realms that simplicity is the vital element of significance. This was evidenced mainly by the structure of the patch - notatating the midi from the piece simply from a handful of lines of concise code. This theme was also referenced by the speaker in relation to the macro of the Tenney piece in general. This piece, though seeming complex is just the elaboration of a very simple, neat and ordered idea - which despite (for all intents and purposes) predating the explosion of computer music, is purely an algorithm (evidenced in the aforementioned code)
Mathematical relationships of intervals, keys, harmonic relationships and a deeper understanding of the foundations of rhythmic theory are all weaknesses in my practical knowledge I should seek to grasp before undertaking projects of any great relevance.
Further reading:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07494460701671558
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/mts.2012.34.2.48?uid=33336&uid=3737536
http://www.robertwannamaker.com/writings/rwannamaker_north_american_spectralism.pdf
Ben Byrne was great to listen to. It was very easy to relate to his experience, his creative approach and the greater narrative of his work. Specifically, his focus on giving everyday technology not considered to be musical a musical context. Due to this, his sound palette was very similar to my own - though I found the pieces we heard undeveloped and far less compelling than I had expected. This came into context when he explained that much of his work is a reaction to both the conventional linear narrative of sound and the expansive palette of contemporary sound artists. I find a restrictive palette to be conducive to the former, therefore without a deeper relationship to his process I did not find these pieces to be as engaging.
The Max5 patch he demonstrated supported the themes of the significance of simplicity in the earlier talk. A very convoluted and visually dense patch that did very little of significance.
This is not to say his work is not significant, far from it. The work of Ben Byrne has a deeper relevance in the domain of communication and the psychology of perception - the reductive, technical, mathematical approach of Tenney and the earlier speaker have only deeper relevance in the articulation of harmonic and rhythmic structure, physics and the fundamentals of sound from a musical context and beyond to the macro - but does little in terms of yielding insight into our psychological relationship to it.
http://www.avantwhatever.com/
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